Spending the last three days visiting Death Valley proved to be one the most exciting journeys I've ever embarked on. I had planned out everything I wanted to do beforehand, since DVNP is an enormous area to cover. My adventure, however, started before I even made it into the park boundaries.
There was a rather serious storm happening on the day I left for the park. As a result, the highway I was supposed to take into the park out turned out to be closed starting about 50 miles away from the campground I planned on staying at. It had been washed out due to flash flooding. It's possible that I should have turned around, seeing the road barricaded ahead of me, but going around to get in to the park from the other direction would have required over 180 miles of backtracking and re-routing.
I had been planning this trip for a while. All of the things that I wanted to do, starting on the morning of my arrival, were planned out on a piece of paper. This meant that wasting 3 - 4 hours going around the road closure was definitely out of the question. I decided that this was part of the adventure, and drove off the road, around the barricade.
The highway was fine! ...for about 10 miles... then it started getting messy. At first, there was just sand washed across the road. Then rocks. Then the shoulder crumbling away, until eventually the whole road was collapsed beneath me. My only option was to drive off the side of the road, through the desert, and back to the nearest highway.
There were a few sketchy moments when I felt my tires start to spin in the sand. Luckily, however, the rain had packed the sand hard, and I eventually made it back to the highway. It looked like it would be all smooth sailing after that, but the storm had covered the mountain pass into the park with fresh snow. I had never driven in snow before. The sign said "Chains Required".
I kept going. I had to. I had come this far and I wasn't going to turn back now -- especially after having made it through the desert already. There were only a few miles left to the destination. The road was icy. I slipped around a few times, never letting myself go faster than 30 mph, and made it to the other side just as they were closing the road to people exiting the valley. Only later did I realize that if I had turned back at the first road closure, I would have never made it over the pass in time.
So after the drive in, my stay at Death Valley National Park was very enjoyable, even though it rained for two of the three days I was there. It stayed relatively warm during the day -- low 60's -- and only dropped to around 40 at night. I stayed the first night at the Furnace Creek Campground and the second at the Texas Springs Campground. I spent my time hiking, trekking/exploring, off-roading, and seeing some of the major attractions like Mosaic Canyon, The Natural Bridge, The Devil's Golf Course, and Zabriskie Point. On the last morning I woke up to clear skies and a brisk East wind blowing through the canyons, which made my walk through the Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes all the more satisfying.
From there, I drove back through the snowy pass and out to Lake Isabella. It was a much nicer drive on the way out, compared to the near white-out conditions three days prior.
Lake Isabella was warm and inviting. I fished there for a little over two hours without any luck. Before heading out, I walked around on the banks of the lake with my dog, brad. The natural beauty of the tail end of the Sierra Nevada Mountains which surround the lake are truly amazing in the way they reflect off the water.
I finished this trip along the Kern River, which feeds into and runs out of Lake Isabella. I stopped and fished a fly at a couple different spots along the river, which was beautiful and breathtaking in the evening light.
There was a rather serious storm happening on the day I left for the park. As a result, the highway I was supposed to take into the park out turned out to be closed starting about 50 miles away from the campground I planned on staying at. It had been washed out due to flash flooding. It's possible that I should have turned around, seeing the road barricaded ahead of me, but going around to get in to the park from the other direction would have required over 180 miles of backtracking and re-routing.
I had been planning this trip for a while. All of the things that I wanted to do, starting on the morning of my arrival, were planned out on a piece of paper. This meant that wasting 3 - 4 hours going around the road closure was definitely out of the question. I decided that this was part of the adventure, and drove off the road, around the barricade.
The highway was fine! ...for about 10 miles... then it started getting messy. At first, there was just sand washed across the road. Then rocks. Then the shoulder crumbling away, until eventually the whole road was collapsed beneath me. My only option was to drive off the side of the road, through the desert, and back to the nearest highway.
There were a few sketchy moments when I felt my tires start to spin in the sand. Luckily, however, the rain had packed the sand hard, and I eventually made it back to the highway. It looked like it would be all smooth sailing after that, but the storm had covered the mountain pass into the park with fresh snow. I had never driven in snow before. The sign said "Chains Required".
I kept going. I had to. I had come this far and I wasn't going to turn back now -- especially after having made it through the desert already. There were only a few miles left to the destination. The road was icy. I slipped around a few times, never letting myself go faster than 30 mph, and made it to the other side just as they were closing the road to people exiting the valley. Only later did I realize that if I had turned back at the first road closure, I would have never made it over the pass in time.
So after the drive in, my stay at Death Valley National Park was very enjoyable, even though it rained for two of the three days I was there. It stayed relatively warm during the day -- low 60's -- and only dropped to around 40 at night. I stayed the first night at the Furnace Creek Campground and the second at the Texas Springs Campground. I spent my time hiking, trekking/exploring, off-roading, and seeing some of the major attractions like Mosaic Canyon, The Natural Bridge, The Devil's Golf Course, and Zabriskie Point. On the last morning I woke up to clear skies and a brisk East wind blowing through the canyons, which made my walk through the Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes all the more satisfying.
From there, I drove back through the snowy pass and out to Lake Isabella. It was a much nicer drive on the way out, compared to the near white-out conditions three days prior.
Lake Isabella was warm and inviting. I fished there for a little over two hours without any luck. Before heading out, I walked around on the banks of the lake with my dog, brad. The natural beauty of the tail end of the Sierra Nevada Mountains which surround the lake are truly amazing in the way they reflect off the water.
I finished this trip along the Kern River, which feeds into and runs out of Lake Isabella. I stopped and fished a fly at a couple different spots along the river, which was beautiful and breathtaking in the evening light.
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